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What to do with perceptions?
FleaMarket
Veteran
in Mindfulness
Perceiving the world as it really is, is a critical component necessary for wisdom. Concentration and mindfulness practice helps with this. Though it isn't enough to perceive it as it really is. There has to be an understanding of sorts. Or the way it's stuck in my head, what to do about it.
The Tao story of the farmer and his horse comes to mind.
So I guess the question is what to do about it?
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The first thing to do is to realise how limited words are. Every word in the dictionary is defined in terms of other words. Every word is just a pointer to a thing or concept. Many words point to things that do not exist, or are supposed to exist. If you think in words, you think essentially in pointers to the world, most of which do not exist.
Getting out of the habit of perceiving words is also important. If you see a tree and you dismiss it as being ‘just a tree’ you miss the digging roots, the splendid branches, the leaves and the nuts or even flowers. You won’t know whether it is a good tree for climbing.
One important saying here is that “in the beginning, rivers are rivers and mountains are mountains. Further on the path, rivers are not just rivers and mountains are not just mountains. But in the end, rivers become rivers again, and mountains become mountains.” I always took it to mean that in the beginning, things are just as we perceive. As we approach freedom, things become laden with our memories and imaginings. As we reach freedom and all these things of mind dissipate, it all clears up and we see things as they are again, but now washed clean of implications.
Such perception, being a result of enlightenment, seeing things as-they-are, will provide wisdom.
Nothing. After enlightenment, there's really nothing left to do. Simply rest. I would see it as constant samadhi. I suppose you could teach. If you wanted to. Teaching from the experience of, let's call it, seeingasis, would be a hot commodity.
Move to Boulder. Or Sedona. We could use some help in the Carolinas.
Hire Lobster to coin your mantra. Maybe they're a terton, and you could have them compose a sadhana too!.
The most difficult course of action is inaction or in Buddhist terms non-action, or Taoism - Wu Wei. Doing nothing, apathy, a giving up nihilism, is the dank side. Rather we do as we always do but with increasing perception/wisdom comes:
I could say less …
The other thing to be clear about is that “seeing the world as it is” carries with it a revolution in thinking. All at once, the impact of right view is felt throughout one’s thinking.
Indeed I could say less. However I perceives a solution in words when residing in the intellect awares or unawares. Maybe a useful indication, the presence of words, when the experiential has slipped into intellectual.
A mind soldiers on.
I sit here struggling to rub a cloth clean with dirty sweaty hands and little attention to where these new smudges are coming from. An anxious tic born of desires. Desires like wanting to be a positive contribution, not wanting to be a negative contribution, especially to my parents. Though I perceive they offer little option in the matter. rub rub rub
With your advices I might be seeing it happening. Trouble is this nagging urge to do something about it, to set it right.
Additionally, and related to the topic, the Similie of the Mountains comes to mind.
I think you're right in that utilizing perceptions (along with the other four aggregates) is an important part of the path. But it's not about having the 'correct' perceptions so much as cultivating certain perceptions, mind-states, and insights which bring one closer to removing craving, not-self identifying with them, and ultimately realizing awakening (e.g., AN 4.49 , AN 6.63, AN 7.46, SN 22.47, SN 27.10, etc.).